Scottish Parliamentary Elections May 2021

[NorthernLights]

 

[invergowrie arab]

3 hours ago, G51 said:

Because in the Far North, the actual candidate is normally far more important than the party they represent because everyone knows the candidate. It's why the councils are made up almost entirely of independents - even people who are actually members of a political party don't tend to stand under that banner.

The Central Belt parties like Labour and the SNP have never really cared about these constituencies, so they always ended up fielding shite candidates.

 

I'm sure you mean it's because yous are servile yokels who like to vote for the laird 

[sophia]

1 hour ago, G51 said:

Ah, but such is the charmed life of a politician that isn't actually in power.

The SNP can claim to have done something on this, but ultimately these issues still remain and they have the power to fix the overwhelming majority of them at the stroke of a pen. They are very good at making life needlessly difficult for people in the Far North because they simply don't think or care about the place.

For example, consider the incumbent SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, a lassie named Gail Ross. She's not standing for Parliament in this upcoming election because she has a young family, and having one is completely incompatible with being a northern MSP. The reason for this is:

a) it's extremely expensive to travel to Edinburgh quickly through the air, a problem exacerbated by the lack of a Scottish Government PSO on these routes (though there is some talk that they're going to look at this now, but they've had years to do it already)

b) it's extremely impractical to travel to Edinburgh by train, because it takes eight hours and also costs a fortune, a problem exacerbated by the SNP's shambolic handling of Abellio etc. and a complete lack of investment in new infrastructure projects.

c) they simply won't allow her to work from home, for some inexplicable reason. I literally have no idea why the SNP wouldn't allow this.

Gail is very well known and quite popular in the constituency - the family are active in the local community, her husband is very involved with local football and they're all generally quite well thought of. The SNP have lost a good candidate, and someone that people liked, as a consequence of their policies for the Far North. People know why she's quit and even folk who didn't vote for her think it's an outrage. A candidate from Glasgow or Edinburgh wouldn't be forced to make such a choice, and people know that. This is a situation that could very easily have been fixed.

 

Would travel be something that is eligible as a legitimate business expense?

[G51]

15 minutes ago, sophia said:

Would travel be something that is eligible as a legitimate business expense?

It would - travel to Parliament is a legitimate expense. There’s a very old anecdote (I think it’s fairly well known but not sure) about a former Orkney and Shetland MP who was told that for his travel expenses he had to put down his nearest train station so they could calculate his travel expenses. Only for the Fees Office to have a fit when he (correctly) stated that the nearest train station to his house was in Bergen. I’ve heard that story told about Grimond, Carmichael and Tavish Scott though, so it’s probably shite.

I should have been clearer on the issues with the air connection - while it is expensive, I think the main concern for Ross would be that it doesn’t run Monday mornings and Friday nights, so it’s not really compatible with a working week. 

[LongTimeLurker]

1 hour ago, G51 said:

...about a former Orkney and Shetland MP who was told that for his travel expenses he had to put down his nearest train station so they could calculate his travel expenses. Only for the Fees Office to have a fit when he (correctly) stated that the nearest train station to his house was in Bergen...

You need to say mainline train station for it to work.

https://www.libdemvoice.org/lib-de-mp-wheres-my-nearest-railway-station-in-norway-16495.html

{yes I know it should be Bergen in the link rather than Oslo}

Edited April 20, 2021 by LongTimeLurker

[SandyCromarty]

2 hours ago, ICTChris said:

The SNP were historically strong in the North East.  The Highlands were Liberal Democrat, although I think the MP for Caithness for many years was Robert MacLennan who was elected Labour, and then joined the SDP and eventually Lib Dems.

Russel Johnson 33 years a Liberal MP for Inverness.

[scottsdad]

3 hours ago, renton said:

Is it just me or is there very little going on in this campaign. Pollsters seem to have given up a bit too

It's the doldrums just now. There was interest/activity at thhe start and it'll ramp up again ahead of May 3rd, but this is a quiet patch not helped at all by Prince Philip sucking all the publicity out of it.

[sophia]

1 hour ago, G51 said:

It would - travel to Parliament is a legitimate expense. There’s a very old anecdote (I think it’s fairly well known but not sure) about a former Orkney and Shetland MP who was told that for his travel expenses he had to put down his nearest train station so they could calculate his travel expenses. Only for the Fees Office to have a fit when he (correctly) stated that the nearest train station to his house was in Bergen. I’ve heard that story told about Grimond, Carmichael and Tavish Scott though, so it’s probably shite.

I should have been clearer on the issues with the air connection - while it is expensive, I think the main concern for Ross would be that it doesn’t run Monday mornings and Friday nights, so it’s not really compatible with a working week. 

I'm not really sure there's an awful lot of Holyrood attendance on a Friday.

Is it not the case they travel home on a Thursday? That's certainly the case for Westminster.

Agreed on your general point though, there should be much more leeway for remote working and perhaps the new predicting officer will allow this. 

I wonder who the next po will be. 

Lib Dem, SNP, Tory, SNP and Labour thus far and presumably it will be someone being re-elected for the last time before pension time.

Murdo Fraser?

[wirez]

[GordonS]

13 hours ago, G51 said:

He did, but then again that was in 2015, which was definitely a low water mark for the Lib Dems.

People do give a f**k about austerity, but that cuts both ways when you see the money the SNP have cut from council budgets and the power they've centralised and taken away from the area. Life there isn't any better since the SNP took control of Holyrood, and it's arguably worse given the SNP's inability or unwillingness to address the sustainability of these communities.

What powers have the Scottish Government taken from local authorities? The only thing I can think of is the council tax freeze. And what have they given to local authorities?

10 hours ago, G51 said:

There’s a very old anecdote (I think it’s fairly well known but not sure) about a former Orkney and Shetland MP who was told that for his travel expenses he had to put down his nearest train station so they could calculate his travel expenses. Only for the Fees Office to have a fit when he (correctly) stated that the nearest train station to his house was in Bergen. I’ve heard that story told about Grimond, Carmichael and Tavish Scott though, so it’s probably shite.

It's not even true - the closest station to Shetland is Thurso.

 

I've got no time for the completely unevidenced claims that any particular corner of Scotland gets a comparatively poor deal or gets forgotten by the Scottish Government or Parliament. It's just not true and literally every local authority in Scotland has claimed it at some time or another. 

[tamthebam]

8 hours ago, sophia said:

I'm not really sure there's an awful lot of Holyrood attendance on a Friday.

Is it not the case they travel home on a Thursday? That's certainly the case for Westminster.

Agreed on your general point though, there should be much more leeway for remote working and perhaps the new predicting officer will allow this. 

I wonder who the next po will be. 

Lib Dem, SNP, Tory, SNP and Labour thus far and presumably it will be someone being re-elected for the last time before pension time.

Murdo Fraser?

If Gorgeous George gets in make him PO for a laugh.

[Baxter Parp]

TV licences are reserved, of course.

[SANTAN]

 

 

[GordonS]

8 hours ago, Baxter Parp said:

TV licences are reserved, of course.

I don't think that would prevent the Scottish Government from paying for them, though. They've topped up other reserved things. 

[Baxter Parp]

I don't think that would prevent the Scottish Government from paying for them, though. They've topped up other reserved things. 

So Jackie wants us to mitigate yet another Westminster policy and with what budget?

[ayrmad]

3 minutes ago, Baxter Parp said:

1 hour ago, GordonS said:

I don't think that would prevent the Scottish Government from paying for them, though. They've topped up other reserved things. 

So Jackie wants us to mitigate yet another Westminster policy and with what budget?

The same budget the trinkets came from. 

[GordonS]

3 minutes ago, Baxter Parp said:

1 hour ago, GordonS said:

I don't think that would prevent the Scottish Government from paying for them, though. They've topped up other reserved things. 

So Jackie wants us to mitigate yet another Westminster policy and with what budget?

Yup. The Tories do a bad thing and Labour blame the SNP. That's why they've lost half their vote.

[Highland Capital]

A whole jamboree of leaflets in the letter box today here in the Inverness Central ward.  Greens, Reform, RestoreScotland, Scottish Family Party and even one from TUSC!

The latter one is actually quite good - I see they've switched to Yes and I like a lot of policy proposals but a lot of it seems to be covered by the Greens already.

[Granny Danger]

2 hours ago, GordonS said:

Yup. The Tories do a bad thing and Labour blame the SNP. That's why they've lost half their vote.

I wonder if anyone in SLab has carried out an objective analysis of why they’ve gone from first to third in the Scottish political rankings.  Maybe they did and the conclusion was too hard to accept.

[Gordon EF]

26 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

I wonder if anyone in SLab has carried out an objective analysis of why they’ve gone from first to third in the Scottish political rankings.  Maybe they did and the conclusion was too hard to accept.

Exclusive peek at SLAB's analysis of 14 years of abject electoral failure...

Spoiler

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Gordon EF